Cheeeese

“Cheeeese” is not the sequel but the answer to a famous Italian movie called “Pane e Cioccolata” (Bread and Chocolate). How can you give a Swiss response to an Italian film with such a name? It’s like this: “Cheese”or better “Cheeeese” – like give me a smile (or as the dictionary says: the cheese of the cake or the true core of the apple), and because the Swiss are not known for smiling much by nature. In “Bread and Chocolate”, an Italian worker who comes to Switzerland to find work is trying his best to look and behave like the Swiss. In “Cheeeese”, the Swiss hotel director behaves completely differently. First, he does not even want to go to Italy because he believes that everything south of the Alps must be Africa, poor and dirty, and it is only the love of his wife for their Sicilian head waiter that persuades him spend their summer holidays in Sicily, where he discovers that there are places with riches far greater than in any of Switzerland’s bank accounts. After finishing my courses at New York University Film School, I moved to Rome in 1974 where I had the chance to work as an assistant to legendary director Federico Fellini, before I went on to direct my first feature film, “Hotel Locarno”, in 1979. It earned several international awards for best direction and best film.

About Bernard Weber

Bernard Weber has had a varied career as a filmmaker, museum curator, aviator, and explorer. Fluent in five languages, the Swiss-born Canadian Weber has spent most of his life traveling the world and experiencing the rare sense of adventure and inspiration that comes from meeting different cultures.